YouTube has agreed to pay $22 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over the platform’s suspension of his account following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents made public on Monday. Trump’s lawyer said the money will go to a fund that primarily finances a large ballroom the Republican wants to add to the White House.
Background: January 6 ban and reinstatement
YouTube suspended Trump’s channel on January 12, 2021, citing violations of its rules after he urged supporters to mobilize against certification of the 2020 election results. The platform restored his account in March 2023.
The deal makes YouTube the latest major platform to settle with Trump. Meta agreed in late January 2025 to pay $21 million, while X (Twitter) paid $10 million a few weeks later. Beyond social media, news networks have also settled: CBS agreed in July to pay $16 million over a dispute involving an edited clip of a Kamala Harris interview during the campaign, and ABC agreed in December to pay $15 million.
Pushback from media watchdogs
Media Matters called YouTube’s payout “a shameful and short-sighted capitulation.” Its president, Angelo Carusone, said the decision “amounts to encouraging Trump and his efforts to smother dissenting voices by forcing media and online platforms to comply.”
Legal context
Many legal scholars argued Trump’s claims were unlikely to prevail, noting that YouTube, Meta and X are private companies that may set and enforce their own content policies.